was the first of C. P. Snow's “Strangers and Brothers”
series to be published, in 1940, and was originally itself called
Strangers and Brothers. In the sequence as rearranged by Snow for the 1972 omnibus edition, it comes second, after
Time of Hope(1949). Its new title indicates its focus on the complex, contradictory figure of George Passant, who fails both to fulfil his worldly potential and to live up to the optimistic libertarian idealism which he preaches. Lewis Eliot, the first-person narrator of all the “Strangers and Brothers” novels, sums up George as a man who:
was larger than life, and yet capable of any self-deception; who was the most unselfseeking and generous of men, and yet sacrificed everything for his own pleasures; who possessed formidable
1424 words
Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "George Passant". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 February 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21628, accessed 19 April 2024.]
